Sandston Baptist turns 85

The little village – located a mere 40 minutes from Richmond by electric trolley car – was fast growing into a bustling suburb during the post-World-War-I decade.

High time, said community members, that Sandston had a new place of worship. And on September 26, 1926, forty-one of those community members gathered to adopt and sign a covenant for Sandston Baptist Church.

For the first few years, the new congregation worshipped in the old Sandston Elementary School. Two lots on Pickett Avenue were purchased for $200 from the Richmond-Fairfield Railway Company, and the basement of a building was completed in 1931. But with the country entering the Great Depression, and church members owing $2000 on the basement, they could build no further.

By the time the congregation paid off the debt and began planning an addition to the basement, World War II was underway, and progress remained at a standstill. The basement would serve as sanctuary, dining hall and Sunday school classrooms for almost two decades.

Thelma Moore remembers those basement services well.

Having married “Sandston boy” Bernard Moore in 1947, she attended her first Sunday worship soon after. Coming from a much larger church in Richmond (Grace Baptist, then located at Boulevard and Grove), she was taken aback by the relatively tiny congregation and the cramped quarters.

“There were less than 100 people, but we were crowded in that basement,” she recalls. During Sunday School, the classrooms were separated by noisy roll-up doors; when the classes ended, a bell would ring. “Then we pushed up the doors,” says Moore, “and turned our chairs around [to face the pulpit for worship].

“It was a big adjustment for me.”

No reading allowedHaving worked in the “beginner department” (pre-kindergarten Sunday school) at Grace, Moore was quickly recruited to do the same at Sandston. She remembers teaching up to a dozen children in classrooms she described as “teeny”; the kitchen doubled as a nursery, and the floors were concrete.

After she became pregnant with twins, Moore says, her Sunday school lessons lapsed for awhile. “I was so large and so sick, I didn’t come much.”

But she was back in the classroom not long after the birth of her daughters, and eventually took over Training Union, a youth education program. “There was no paid staff,” she says. “Just four of us ladies working together in Training Union.”

At nine and ten years of age, the children in Training Union learned to take charge of church programs -- even becoming pastors for a week and handling other adult duties.

“A lot of them learned their first public speaking there [in Training Union],” says Moore. “They preached -- and believe you me they didn’t read it! Old Lady Moore made them learn it,” she says with a laugh.

At least three alumni of SBC’s Training Union went on to become ministers, Moore says. She is also proud to claim Jo Lynne DeMary, former state superintendent of public instruction, as a past pupil.

“She was one of my girls,” Moore says fondly of DeMary. “It was a joy to see them grow.”

A storied historyAfter 1949, when the roof was removed from the basement to add a sanctuary, SBC grew by leaps and bounds. Sunday school classes became so crowded in the 1950s that additional nearby lots and houses were purchased and a new education building was constructed. By the 1970s, the congregation needed a multi-purpose building, and Moore served on the building committee for what became the Bosher-Gray building. BG, as it is called, was named for teen members Robbie Bosher and Bruce Gray, who were killed in an automobile accident the year the building opened.

Since then, the church has expanded into a spacious new sanctuary (built in 1995) and two Sunday services. And Moore -- her twins long since grown and gone – has been involved with almost every aspect and committee along the way. “I’ve scrubbed floors and cut shrubbery . . . cooked meals for 200 people when Bosher-Gray opened. I got my husband to plant those trees around the building when they were just saplings,” says Moore, indicating several large, mature trees that surround the church today.

In her 63 years at the church, Moore has also come to think of it as a second home.

“When I came to Sandston Baptist Church,” she says, “I was ‘Bernard Moore’s wife.’ Then I was ‘the twins’ mom.’ And when they went off to college I got to be Thelma Moore!”

As the church prepares to celebrate its 85th birthday Sept. 18, Moore -- who is the same age as the church -- concedes that she has had to cut back on involvement as mobility becomes more difficult.

But she is still active on the flower committee, and passionate about supporting such programs as the Woman’s Missionary Union and Camp Alkulana.

Over the years, SBC and associated churches have redeemed enough soup labels to provide the camp, which serves inner city youth, with everything from computers and a PA system to sports equipment. Moore’s role? Collecting, cutting and counting the thousands of labels donated by church members.

“Just last Saturday we mailed off 8000 UPC’s [universal product codes],” says Moore. “It’s something elderly people can do; we can’t get up and run out to meetings at night [any more].”

Asked to name some favorite memories of her 63 years at the church, Moore reminisces about holiday events and decorations, from the hanging of greens at Christmastime to a memorable Easter pageant starring deacons as the disciples and featuring a foot-washing.

But her fondest memories of all, Moore says, are the fellowship dinners.

She chuckles as she describes a recent get-together at which church members pored over piles of photos to select a few for an anniversary slide show. It was hard not to notice, she says, that most of the pictures were taken at fellowship dinners.

“Thirty-five hundred pictures,” exclaims Moore. “And in 3,000 of them we were eating!”

Appropriately, the 85th anniversary celebration will feature ample food and fellowship, beginning with a coffee and donuts social and concluding with a covered dish luncheon. Moore wouldn’t dream of missing it, and looks forward to breaking bread with new friends as well as reuniting with old.

“I just hope that in some way I’ve helped the church grow. That’s my biggest wish.”

Sandston Baptist Church will celebrate its 85th anniversary Sept. 18 with a single service at 10:30 a.m., which will include a time of prayer, music by the praise team and choir, a presentation by the MajeSticks (Youth Department), a children’s sermon, a church history review, and recognition of previous staff members. The message will be delivered by Pastor Karl Heilman.

To allow for a time of fellowship in the hallway between the sanctuary and educational building from 9:30 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., there will be no Sunday school classes. Coffee and donuts will be available during that time. The service will be followed by a covered dish luncheon, for which the church will provide meat, dessert, and drinks. For details, visit sandstonbaptistchurch.com.

The Henricopolis Soil & Water Conservation District will sponsor a tree seedling giveaway on April 2 at Dorey Park Shelter 1 from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and on April 3 at Hermitage High School parking lot from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Bare-root tree seedlings are available to Henrico County residents free of charge for the spring planting season.

The following seedling species will be available: apple, kousa dogwood, red maple, river birch, red osier dogwood, loblolly pine, sycamore, bald cypress, white dogwood and redbud. Quantities are limited and trees are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Each participant is allowed up to 10 trees total, not to include more than five of the same species. > Read more.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) recently launched an online directory of permitted bingo games played in Virginia. Listed by locality, more than 400 regular games are available across the state. The directory will be updated monthly and can be found on VDACS’ website at http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/gaming/index.shtml.

“Many Virginia charities, including volunteer rescue squads, booster clubs and programs to feed the homeless, use proceeds from charitable gaming as a tool to support their missions, said Michael Menefee, program manager for VDACS’ Office of Charitable and Regulatory Programs. > Read more.

Richmonders Jim Morgan and Dan Stackhouse were married at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Lakeside Mar. 7 month after winning the Say I Do! With OutRVA wedding contest in February. The contest was open to LGBT couples in recognition of Virginia’s marriage equality law, which took effect last fall. The wedding included a package valued at $25,000.

Morgan and Stackhouse, who became engaged last fall on the day marriage equality became the law in Virginia, have been together for 16 years. They were selected from among 40 couples who registered for the contest. The winners were announced at the Say I Do! Dessert Soiree at the Renaissance in Richmond in February. > Read more.

Two events this weekend benefit man’s best friend – a rabies clinic, sponsored by the Glendale Ruritan Club, and an American Red Cross Canine First Aid & CPR workshop at Alpha Dog Club. The fifth annual Shelby Rocks “Cancer is a Drag” Womanless Pageant will benefit the American Cancer Society and a spaghetti luncheon on Sunday will benefit the Eastern Henrico Ruritan Club. Twin Hickory Library will also host a used book sale this weekend with proceeds benefiting The Friends of the Twin Hickory Library. For all our top picks this weekend, click here! > Read more.

In a spot that could be easily overlooked is a surprising, and delicious, Japanese restaurant. In a tiny nook in the shops at the corner of Ridgefield Parkway and Pump Road sits a welcoming, warm and comfortable Asian restaurant called Ichiban, which means “the best.”

The restaurant, tucked between a couple others in the Gleneagles Shopping Center, was so quiet and dark that it was difficult to tell if it was open at 6:30 p.m. on a Monday. When I opened the door, I smiled when I looked inside. > Read more.

Cinderella is the latest from Disney’s new moviemaking battle plan: producing live-action adaptations of all their older classics. Which is a plan that’s had questionable results in the past.

Alice in Wonderland bloated with more Tim Burton goth-pop than the inside of a Hot Topic. Maleficent was a step in the right direction, but the movie couldn’t decide if Maleficent should be a hero or a villain (even if she should obviously be a villain) and muddled itself into mediocrity.

Cinderella is much better. Primarily, because it’s just Cinderella. No radical rebooting. No Tim Burton dreck. It’s the 1950 Disney masterpiece, transposed into live action and left almost entirely untouched. > Read more.